Hoot Elegies
“Initially the elegy was not restricted to laments.
On the contrary, there was the erotic elegy (brilliantly
taken up by the Latin poet Ovid)”
~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 11
In long gone centuries elegies were hot
With sex. The playful poet Ovid made
Them far more fun than grief. His lines were fraught
With lust of gods for younger males they laid
And lovely girls they raped . . . no room for sad
Stuff for these macho deities. Their wives
Saw nothing elegiac in this bad
Behavior, but man’s hardest need survives
Attacks from female goddesses—or those
Who think that they are such. The poems flowed
With wit and sweat as gods tore off the clothes
Of victims and of lovers. Like an ode
More sacred than an epic, this slick verse
Fulfilled the love of gods, both sweet and terse.